The UK’s second subsidy-free solar farm, and the first by a local authority using battery storage, has been completed by West Sussex County Council in a project that ticked “every box” and will generate significant income over the next 25 years.

A new study has found that the UK could meet its growing power needs predominantly with solar and wind energy, with battery storage and demand response providing flexibility.

North Kesteven District Council, a local authority in England’s Midlands, has approved a near 50MW solar farm alongside planning consent for a 50MWh battery for Pegasus Group, adjacent to an existing 18MW solar farm.

The Selma-Kingsburg-Fowler County Sanitation District (SKFCSD) held a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 8 to celebrate the start of construction on an integrated solar/battery storage system that will help power treatment facilities across 222 hectares of SKFCSD service territory.

A representative of National Grid, the UK’s transmission system operator (TSO), has said that energy storage will be “integral” to the network’s flexibility strategy – while urging developers not to rely solely on early frequency regulation contracts.

Australian energy firm Genex Power has received first-round board approval from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) for potential debt funding of its 270MW solar PV and 250MW pumped hydro projects, that are part of the Kidston Renewable Energy Hub, in Northern Queensland.

The provincial government of New South Wales has published a guide for consumers on residential solar-plus-storage.

There have been modest year-on-year increases in the number of PV installers in Germany and the UK offering energy storage to their customers, according to a survey by EUPD Research.

An open fund for solar energy and energy storage in various emerging markets has been launched by Franck Constant, the co-founder of Sonnedix Group and director of Sithe Pacific, Energy-Storage.News’ sister site PV Tech revealed today.

SolarPower Europe is calling on the European Commission (EC) to address both solar power and energy storage in its upcoming Energy Union Package. In light of this, the association’s Task Force on solar & storage has created 10 policy priorities that will need to be considered to develop an appropriate framework for those technologies.